This invention relates generally to article surveillance tags and, more particularly, to the deactivation of article surveillance tags at checkout stations.
Self-checkout stations at grocery stores and other retail stores are well known. The stations permit a consumer to scan articles for purchase so the station may identify the articles and a corresponding price. When the consumer indicates all articles for purchase have been presented to the terminal, a sub-total is accumulated, any taxes and discounts are computed, and a total amount due is displayed for the consumer. The station then allows the consumer to select a payment method. The station presents menu selections to the consumer so funds may be transferred to the retailer""s account. Upon confirmation of payment, the articles are released to the consumer.
A self-checkout station typically includes a terminal, a scanner and scales for reading unit price codes (UPC) and determining article weight, a cashier keypad and display, a POS terminal for payment entry, a receipt printer, a change unit, and a checkout area for holding articles once they have been scanned. The terminal also includes a display, a processor, memory, programmed instructions, and data peripherals to control the operations of the station. The programmed instructions may contain modules for querying for article prices, computing totals and performing other functions related to the purchase of articles through a self-checkout station. Some checkout stations may also include a security application program that uses data from sensors such as scales to reduce the likelihood that the consumer leaves without scanning all of the articles or exchanges scanned articles with more expensive articles that have not been scanned.
Typically, two or more self-checkout stations are located proximately to one another with a checkout attendant station nearby. The checkout attendant may help consumers who may be using a self-checkout station for the first time, who are having trouble with scanning an article, or who are having difficulty with a payment method or the like. That is, the primary duty of the attendant is to provide assistance to customers who are using the self-checkout stations so they are efficiently used and quickly process customers with their checkouts. Although these attendants are available to assist in security monitoring, such duties actually detract from the performance of their primary duty.
In some retail stores, electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems are used to detect the unauthorized removal of merchandise from the store. EAS systems include surveillance tags that may be attached to articles of merchandise and detection devices that sound an alarm upon detection of a tag. The detection devices are typically located at the doorways of the retail store to reduce the likelihood that the articles are removed from the store without authorization. For articles bearing such tags that are properly purchased at a self-checkout counter, the consumer may present the articles to a checkout attendant who either deactivates the tag or mechanically removes the tag from the article. The removal or deactivation of the tag from a purchased article allows the consumer to proceed past the detection device located at a store exit without activation of an alarm unless the consumer has concealed articles having tags for which the consumer did not pay.
The tags that may be attached to articles of merchandise are well-known and include radio frequency tags, magnetic tags, microwave tags, and resonant tuned tags. The radio frequency, microwave, and resonant tuned tags typically include a fusible link that may be disconnected to deactivate the tag by altering the characteristics of the electrical circuit in a tag. At least two known methods are used to rupture fusible links. One method radiates the tag with radio frequency energy at a power level sufficient to rupture the fusible link while the other method uses a deactivation frequency to open the fusible link in a multifrequency resonant tag circuit. These methods may be used to deactivate a tag that uses a radio frequency circuit. Other tags may use magnetic components and appropriate degaussing methods may be used to deactivate such tags. Typically, magnetic tags include two magnetic circuit components and one of the magnetic circuit components may be selectively magnetized or degaussed. A magnetic EAS tag deactivator may degauss or magnetize the circuit component that has the alterable magnetic characteristic so that the tag no longer responds to the tag interrogation signal emitted by a tag detection device. Of course, tags may also be deactivated by methods that physically remove a tag from an article.
Previously known systems have included tag deactivators in checkout counters for deactivating EAS tags during checkout. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,135 discloses a bagging area in which a scanner is proximately mounted at the opening of the bag well and a tag deactivator is located at the bottom of the bagging area. When the checkout attendant reaches a hand towards the bag rails extending outwardly from the bag well to remove the bag being filled, a capacitor in a circuit associated with the bag rail senses the attendant""s approach and triggers the deactivator. In response, the energized deactivator applies the signal that deactivates the EAS tags attached to articles in the bag above the tag deactivator. U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,290 requires the deactivator to include an indicia reader so that an identification code located on the EAS tag being deactivated may be compared to an identification code on a hanger tag. This comparison verifies that the tag being deactivated is indeed the one attached to the last article scanned. U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,951 is directed to an integrated barcode scanner and tag deactivator that may be coupled to one another to make sure that the data capturing and tag deactivation functions are completed before an article is given to a consumer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,125 describes an EAS tag detector that generates a signal to activate an EAS tag deactivator in response to detection of an EAS tag and that helps one orient the EAS tag for effective deactivation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,290 discloses a system that selectively enables EAS tag deactivation so tag deactivation cannot occur until the bar code corresponding to the tagged article has been scanned at the self-checkout station. The enabling of the EAS deactivation device requires correspondence between a symbol read from a hanger tag and a symbol read from the surveillance tag. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,692 is directed to a system that uses data scanned from an article to query a database and determine whether a surveillance tag should be deactivated. The deactivator is energized in response to the database indicating the scanned article should have a surveillance tag. Deactivations are counted and discrepancies between the number of tagged articles scanned and the number of deactivations performed is sent to an in-store processor for storage and audit processing.
While all of these patents address the deactivation of EAS tags after the articles to which the tags are attached are scanned for product information, they do not necessarily assure the complete deactivation of an EAS tag attached to an article that remains under a consumer""s control. For example, a consumer using a station embodying the system of the ""125 patent could simply remove the article from the detection field before deactivation is complete and continue with the checkout process. Likewise, the system of the ""951 patent assumes the checkout station operator continues to hold the EAS tag in operational range of the deactivator until the audible signal indicating an EAS tag is in range of the deactivator ceases. However, a consumer at a self-checkout station, unaware of the purpose for the audible signal, may simply remove the article and drop it in the bagging area so the consumer may continue scanning other articles or attempt to complete the checkout process. The system of the ""780 patent requires an intelligent tag and a detector that can interpret the tag data while the system of the ""290 patent requires correspondence between data in a barcode and data in the tag. Consequently, these systems are more complicated as they require more intelligence in the tags and deactivators. Furthermore, these intelligent tag systems are directed to ways for thwarting consumer fraud that occurs when a consumer scans an article with one barcode and deactivates an EAS tag attached to a second more expensive article. Self-checkout counters with scales may be used to effectively thwart many such efforts to defraud a retail store so the expense of such intelligent tag systems may be redundant. Finally, the system of the ""692 patent simply stores the discrepancy data for determining whether vendors are complying with the requirements for tagging articles supplied to the store.
These previously known systems do not require a consumer at a self-checkout counter to completely deactivate a tag before proceeding with checkout. As a result, the article may be removed from the deactivation area and placed in a bag for removal before the EAS tag is deactivated. When the consumer then proceeds past the detection device at an exit point, the interrogator of the detection device is likely to detect the EAS tag and sound an alarm. The consumer is then subjected to the embarrassment of having to be stopped by store security personnel while the contents of all bags are checked to locate the active EAS tags. The consumer must then wait as store personnel complete the EAS tag deactivation. Thus, there is a need for verifying the successful deactivation of an EAS tag during checkout performed by a consumer. This need is especially acute in the operation of self-checkout counters because consumers are not necessarily familiar with the orientation of EAS tags or the amount of time required for successful deactivation of EAS tags.
What is needed is a way of improving the likelihood that consumers will not proceed with the checkout process until they successfully deactivate an EAS tag for a scanned article.
The above-noted limitations of previously known checkout stations with EAS tag deactivators have been overcome by a system and method that operate in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The system of the present invention comprises an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag deactivator for deactivating EAS tags attached to articles processed at a checkout station and an EAS tag interrogator associated with the checkout station that generates an electronic checkout disable signal in response to detection of an EAS tag by the EAS tag interrogator. The checkout disable signal may be used to disable the operation of a self-checkout station component so that the consumer is unable to process additional articles until the EAS tag deactivation operation is successful. The generation and use of the checkout disable signal helps ensure that a consumer at a self-checkout station deactivates all EAS tags attached to articles processed at a self-checkout station during checkout. Use of the checkout disable signal to impede the consumer""s progress in the checkout process is discussed in more detail below.
Preferably, the system of the present invention includes a prompter to notify the consumer to perform an EAS tag deactivation operation for an article just scanned or otherwise submitted by the consumer for purchase. The prompter may be an annunciator, or a display, such as the one typically associated with the terminal of a self-checkout station, or a combination of both. The interrogator of the system may be located proximate an article discharge area of the self-checkout station, such as a bag well, or it may be located proximate the EAS tag deactivator so that the interrogator may monitor for the presence of an EAS tag during EAS tag deactivation. In another embodiment of a system of the present invention, a second interrogator may be located in the article discharge area while the first interrogator is located proximate the EAS tag deactivator. In this embodiment, the transfer of the article from the EAS deactivator to the article discharge area does not terminate generation of the checkout disable signal until the EAS tag is completely deactivated or the article with the tag is removed from the checkout process.
The checkout disable signal may be sent to the processor of the terminal of the self-checkout station to cause the processor to disable components of the self-checkout station. For example, the processor of the terminal may disable operation of the scanner and/or keyboard so the consumer is not able to scan or otherwise submit additional articles for checkout processing. As long as the article with the active EAS tag remains in the EAS deactivator or article discharge area, the self-checkout station will remain disabled. Once the tag becomes deactivated or the article is removed from the checkout process, the checkout disable signal generation is terminated and the checkout process may continue. The processor of the terminal may also suspend queries of the product database or the accumulation of price data in response to the checkout disable signal. This type of operation prevents the consumer from simply attempting to complete the checkout process in response to the suspension of the checkout process by the terminal processor. Thus, the consumer is required to either complete the EAS tag deactivation, remove the article from the checkout process, or request assistance from the self-checkout attendant. Any of these actions reduces the likelihood that the consumer attempts to exit past an article detection device with an article having an active EAS tag.
The method of the present invention includes interrogating an EAS tag attached to an article at a self-checkout station to determine whether the EAS tag is active and generating an electronic checkout disable signal in response to the detection of an active EAS tag at the self-checkout station. The method further includes the disabling of one or more components of the self-checkout station in response to the generation of the electronic checkout disable signal. The generation of the checkout disable signal may also be used for prompting a consumer to perform an EAS tag deactivation. The prompting action may be in the form of an audible message, a displayed message, or a combination of an audible and visible message. The interrogation of the EAS tag may occur in conjunction with the deactivating of the EAS tag or it may take place in response to the placement of an article in an article discharge area of the self-checkout station. Alternatively, two interrogations may take place. The first interrogation may occur in conjunction with the deactivating of the EAS tag and the second interrogation may be made in response to the placement of the article in the article discharge area. The second interrogation generates an electronic checkout disable signal in response to detection of an EAS tag in the article discharge area while the first interrogation may or may not continue to generate a checkout disable signal. Instead, the first interrogation may generate a signal indicative of an ongoing EAS deactivation until either the EAS tag is completely deactivated or the article to which the EAS tag is attached is removed from the EAS deactivator.
It is an object of the present invention to suspend the checkout process occurring at a self-checkout station in response to detection of an EAS tag in an EAS deactivator of the self-checkout station.
It is an object of the present invention to generate an electronic signal for controlling self-checkout station components in response to detection of an EAS tag downstream of the submission of an article having an EAS tag at the selfcheckout station.
It is an object of the present invention to encourage consumers to complete the deactivation of EAS tags before leaving a self-checkout station with purchased articles.
It is an object of the present invention to detect an active surveillance tag at a self-checkout station and notify the customer of the active surveillance tag before the customer leaves the self-checkout station.
These and other advantages and features of the present invention may be discerned from reviewing the accompanying drawings and the detailed description of the invention.